New technologies have transformed our daily lives in ways that would have seemed unthinkable a few decades ago. From the way we communicate to how we work and move around, the advancement of digital applications and platforms has made countless activities much easier that previously required much more complex processes. The world of transportation is no exception, and sharing services, such as BlaBlaCar, enable carpooling in an easy and cost-effective way.
In addition to saving money and convenience, carpooling can also lead to surprising encounters. Beyond simple journeys, some passengers have found much more than a way to travel in these experiences: they have discovered their soulmate while sharing miles, conversations, and, unknowingly, the beginning of a new story together. Stories like those of Jonas and Rosana, Violeta and Javier, or Carmen and Luis, who met by chance and ended up forming relationships that transformed their lives, demonstrate that destiny also hops on the shared car.
The carpooling service fosters new friendships in some cases
Jonas and Rosana
It's been almost 10 years since Jonás and Rosana first met. They met in early January 2015 on a trip from Estepona to Sevilla, as Jonás was starting his car journey back to Salamanca after visiting his sister, and Rosana was completing the first leg to the Andalusian capital before returning to Huesca. “It was one of the first BlaBlaCar rides I took, and the truth is that the stars aligned for Rosana and me to meet in a place so far from where we lived,” Jonás tells Moveo.
That first meeting was brief, just about three hours, but enough to sow a special connection. “It wasn't love at first sight,” Jonás recalls. “She took my phone number and started texting me. One day she said she would like to visit Salamanca with some friends and asked if I could be their guide. I said yes. That's where our relationship began.”
Jonás and Rosana received congratulations from Blablacar at their wedding
However, everything could have ended up being for nothing if it weren't for the fact that Jonás agreed to do something he rarely did: take more than three passengers in his car. “I drive a family Mercedes, but I usually don't have more than three people in the car so that the passengers can be comfortable,” he explains. However, that day he decided to make an exception due to Rosana's insistence, who was traveling with three other friends. “They called me to ask if I could make room for one more person, and in the end, I said yes, as long as the luggage was small because I also had mine,” he recalls.
What Jonah did not expect was the logistical challenge that it would entail. “When they arrived, oh my, they had huge suitcases. We had to play a real-life game of tetris to fit everything up to the ceiling. There wasn't room for a pin,” he laughs. Despite the complication, that journey marked the beginning of a seven-year relationship: he in Salamanca and she in Huesca. “We saw each other every 15 days, more or less, and we took turns with Blablacar to make it more bearable, although it was tough, it was 600 kilometers by car...”.
Jonas proposed to Rosana during the Bedelalsa Cycling Tour
On March 20, 2023, Jonás and Rosana got married in Aínsa (Huesca), where they currently live, and they have a 9-month-old son.
Violeta and Javier
August 2017. Violeta got into Javier's car in Murcia to share a ride to Seville with another couple. But this story, which culminated in a lavish wedding in September 2023, was almost derailed before it all began. Javier explains: “When I posted the trip, I set a meeting point in a square where it’s very common to meet, but then I got confused and went to the wrong place.” Fortunately, everything was resolved, and Violeta became the fourth passenger on a journey of over 500 kilometers, although she had to first get her father's approval.
Violeta and Javier got married in September of last year
“My father drove me from Cartagena to Murcia, and when he saw Javier's somewhat dilapidated Mercedes, he almost didn't let me get in,” Violeta recalls with laughter. “The truth is that it was a phenomenal trip, like almost all the ones I've taken in a carpool. We talked the whole time, and it was as if we had known each other forever.” But there was no love at first sight. The relationship simmered slowly, Javier explains: “We shared this trip and stayed in touch for several days, but then I was transferred to Madrid for work and was there for a while. Not being in Murcia, the relationship cooled off until I returned in 2018. That's when I wrote to her again, and we reconnected.”
Messages, calls, complicit laughs... and a musical theme to which both clung as a reminder of that first trip where they met. “I had the phone plugged in the car and I told Violeta to choose the music she liked,” Javier recalls. “We listened to a bit of everything, but there is a song that has ultimately become the soundtrack of our relationship: Barquito de papel by Demarco Flamenco,” specifies Violeta. “I didn't know this song,” he concludes, “but it means so much to us that it even played at our wedding.”
The trip to Seville was livened up by music, and “Barquito de papel” is now its soundtrack
The wedding took place in September 2023, in Cartagena, and -of course- the image of the car that brought them together was present at all times. “The invitations featured a photo of the two of them with the car where we met, and an image of the car was also used to decorate the banquet tables.” The motto chosen by this young couple could not have been more fitting: “Come join us on the journey of our lives.”
A journey that had started six years earlier and left an anecdote that neither of them will ever forget. “Hehe... It was very funny. When we got out of the car in Seville - I still had to get to Huelva, which was my final destination to go to a bachelorette party - I said to Javier 'the trunk of the car smells so good', and it turns out that the shampoo bottle I had in my suitcase had spilled...”
Carmen and Luis
Carmen can be said to have experienced the beginner's luck. Her story with Luis began almost by chance, as if destiny had decided to smile upon them from the very beginning. “I had never taken a BlaBlaCar before, it was the first one I did, so I got into Luis's car, who had posted his trip on this platform,” she recalls five and a half years after meeting her life partner.
Carmen met Luis on her first carpool trip
It all started during Holy Week of 2019 when Carmen was living in Ciudad Real, where she worked as a legal technician in the regional parliament of Castilla-La Mancha. “I was hoping for an opportunity to return to Seville, where I had lived before and longed to go back. Due to work commitments, I couldn't book a train ticket in advance to travel to the capital of Seville. Finally, when I was given the days off, and searched for tickets, I could only find a one-way ticket.”
It was a friend who convinced Carmen not to miss the opportunity to travel to Seville. “She told me about Blablacar, and although I was initially hesitant since I had never used this service before, I finally decided to take the ride back from Seville to Ciudad Real with a driver who had posted his trip on the platform.” This driver was Luis, the father of her daughter Candela, born in July 2023.
Carmen, Luis, and their daughter Candela form a happy family
But before their relationship took a serious turn, things were not as easy as they seem. “The trip was pleasant, although I was immersed with my phone answering work emails. Upon arriving in Ciudad Real, I said goodbye to Luis and went home, without thinking about him or the journey again. The next day, while I was in the middle of a work meeting, I received a message from Luis asking how the day was going. From that moment on, we started exchanging conversations, but everything was slow and complicated. Luis was in a long-distance relationship with someone in Ciudad Real, which made things even more complicated,” says Carmen.
Finally, Carmen managed to move to Seville. Covid arrived and the relationship cooled off. “Luis and I stopped talking so intensely, I wanted everything or nothing and at that moment he couldn't make up his mind...”. But after the pandemic, destiny brought them back together. “We met again. One beer led to another, to a movie, an exhibition, or a trip to Madrid or Caños de Meca. We started a relationship that we built with a lot of love and that culminated in a wedding in October 2022.” “Now we are a large family: we have our daughter Candela and two dogs, the ones each of us had before we met,” Carmen jokes.